Over the past few weeks, I’ve been hearing increasingly good news about the business outlook for Brentwood. It’s clear that some major companies are investing in the town centre. We’ve had Marks and Spencer’s undertake their high-profile refurbishment to bring a third floor of shopping and a new café to town. This is a great statement of confidence in our High Street from one of the UK’s leading stores. Not far off the High Street, we’ve all seen the work being done on William Hunter Way to regenerate Sainsbury’s. I was given a tour of the store the other day and was extremely impressed by the work being done and the new capacity it will bring to the area. Sainsbury’s are upgrading their food counters so that there’s even more freshly prepared produce on sale, and they’re laying on a sushi bar. With the new parking this should help to bring more people and their money into town helping more small and independent shops to prosper. When the big chains like M&S and Sainsbury’s are putting big money into Brentwood, we can take it as a sign our town is doing well.
Last month I spoke at the monthly Brentwood Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting which is attended by many business people who operate away from the town centre in the various industrial and business parks around the town, like Childerditch, Hallsford Bridge and Warley – from art dealers to funeral directors to photographers to lawyers and beyond. We were discussing how more can be done to bring business and people into Brentwood and, in the words of Cllr John Kerslake, move beyond ‘Brentwood talking to Brentwood’. The possibilities are great.
Our town and area have always benefited from their prime location. Brentwood started as a pit stop on the road from London to Colchester and on the pilgrim route from East Anglia to Canterbury. Today we have excellent access to, for example, the M25, to London and, soon, to Crossrail. If we take advantage of these links we can not just contribute to other local economies but also bring business in to grow our own. If you run a local business (or are just a local shopper) I’d be very interested to hear your views on what more can be done.